


have yourself a merry little christmas

by s4linger



Category: Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Tree, Fluff, M/M, holiday fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-22
Updated: 2012-12-22
Packaged: 2017-11-22 01:42:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/604433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/s4linger/pseuds/s4linger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Headcanon: Steve drags the crew to see the tree light up in Rockefeller Center because this is something from his past that hasn't become outdated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	have yourself a merry little christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mia_wallace](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mia_wallace/gifts).



> I wanted to write some fluffy Avengers holiday stuff. But I ended up with Steve feels galore~  
> This is more of a friendship/bonds fic.

 

“Tony, you’re really going to a lot of trouble,” Bruce frowned as Dummy continued to line the walls with scalloped Christmas lights, brilliant colors flashing in sporadic patterns.

“It’s his first 21st century Christmas!” Tony grinned and tapped the screen of his phone. The strands of lights alternated colors in cheery agreement.

“Yes, but you should know by now Steve doesn’t care about flashy—“

“Bruce, do you think I should go with red and green? Or red, white, and blue?” Tony wasn’t looking at him, not that if he did he would be listening. Tony had the wonderful ability of going completely deaf to the world.

“Why not the whole rainbow?” Bruce asked sarcastically.

“You’re right. I think he’ll like the multi-colored strands better,” Tony nodded as he continued to tap combinations into the touch screen in his hand. The lights blinked and changed, the room cast in their warm golden glow.

Avengers Mansion already felt homier despite its size, since Tony had started decorating it feverishly all morning.

Bruce barely sighed and shook his head. He would bow out on this one. Tony never listened to advice; everything had to be a lesson learned firsthand.

_

_

_

Steve had already dragged the rest of his rag tag team of misfit toys to the lighting of the Rockefeller Christmas tree at the beginning of the month. He remembered when it had first been put up in the 30s—of course he remembers it being much smaller.

They sure did things bigger and brighter now.

But Steve didn’t mind at all. In the minutes it took for the super crew to huddle together in the crowd, Thor had been buzzing with merry excitement. Bruce had taken to explaining to him Christmas traditions. Clint had been teasing the god with the idea that Santa Claus was real, and that SHIELD had him on their watch list. “He’s Russian, I would know,” Natasha had interjected with a deadpan expression. All while Tony had continued to mumble how awful Christmas in New York was with the cold and the snow and the _tourists_.

And then in a blink the tree was alight and glowing, cheers rippled through the crowd, and Thor’s booming laugh drowned them all out. And that moment Steve had been so caught off guard by the joy of everyone around him, he had let out a laugh and hollered with everyone else. He clapped a hand to Tony’s shoulder and all he could say was, “Whoa!”

He remembered walking by Rockefeller when the first unofficial tree was there, much less than half the current tree’s height and decorated with strings of cranberries and tin cans. And soon it became a New York tradition and his mother walked with him each Christmas season, holding his hand, to see it. She died a few years later.

He tried to go alone the year after her death, but the absence of her hand in his made him choke on the tears in his throat. After it had become a tradition just for Bucky and him.

He thought returning would be a solemn tribute to them, but that the memory of the two biggest losses in his life would burn the happiness and warmth right out of him. But 70 years of ice couldn’t freeze the life out of him, and to his surprise this night didn’t either.

The company of his team—these new friends—was the reassurance he had needed. His life would move on, and although he had lost so many loved ones, he would continue to have others in his life.  

The presence of the tree in New York comforted him; this memory of the past was far from outdated. Maybe he could survive in this time period after all.

_

_

_

Tony had never liked the holiday season. When he was young he had dreaded its looming spot on the end of the calendar. For an entire month he was forced to return home from school and spend time with his parents.

Quite and unaffectionate, his mother would spend most of the afternoons telling hired workers how to decorate the mansion and planning the meals for the Christmas party.

Ugh, that _damned annual Christmas Eve party_.

When his father would surely get drunk with filthy rich men and potential investors, and his mother would leave early to go lie down claiming a migraine, her famous excuse. While he would be forced to endure the constant berating of the New York City upper class on how he was doing at MIT all night long.

The next morning was no better. His father would sleep and nurse his hangover all day while his mother would sip tea and complain about every woman at the party the night before as she forced him to model the new wardrobe she gifted him.

No, he had never liked the holidays. They were filled with lonely, painful memories of his parents. And then there was Steve. Steve rounding up the crew to see a damned tree light up, and everyone else had been so willing to go that it was impossible for him not to tag along. Especially when Thor had no idea what Christmas was in the first place.

And then he saw it, the way Steve’s face had lit up just like that tree—because no, he hadn’t been staring at Steve the entire time—and his face split in two with that 1000 watt smile of his and he joined in with the cheering of the people surrounding them. He had gripped his shoulder and looked at him, completely dazzled by the atmosphere.

“Whoa!

_

_

_

Steve smiled at the large wreath hung over the mahogany doors of the mansion. But when he pulled open the door and stepped in the smile dropped open and the bag of groceries nearly fell from his hand.

Tony burst into the foyer immediately as if he had been waiting for Steve. Proudly threw his arms out, “Do you like it?”

Above him was more Christmas lights than he was sure laced the tree in Rockefeller Center. A fantastic arrangement of colors, draped in a spider web like pattern above him, circled and met at the center chandelier.

Steve almost asked him if he had invited Peter over to decorate. “It’s…bright.”

“Come on, you have to see the living room!” Tony motioned him to follow. And it wasn’t just the foyer, or the living room that had been subjected to the festival of lights Tony had erected. It was every single room in the mansion (even the bathrooms had been lit up and the previous shower curtains swapped for ones with holiday themes).

But in the living room Tony had almost replicated to scale the Rockefeller tree. Steve gasped as he moved around the room. Tony pressed a button on his phone and a dust of false snowflakes sprinkled from the ceiling.

“Did you just make it snow in the house, Tony?” Steve was shocked, but all he got in response was a smug look from the billionaire.

“So what do you think?” Tony asked expectantly. And Steve realized he had gone through all this trouble just for him.

“You didn’t have to do this. It’s so much…”

“You love Christmas,” Tony said with a laid back shrug.

“Tony,” Steve looked at him carefully. This was the only way Tony knew how to show that he cared. He quietly noticed something you loved, and blew it up extravagantly. He built it up from blueprints and bolts and assembled it with care. And he presented it to you in all its flash with nonchalance.

But that was him saying he cared. That he put everything he had, in the only way he knew how, into making you happy. And not many people ever understood or appreciated that.

Steve’s hesitance made Tony’s façade falter, he seemed to droop thinking his gift was being rejected. “Tony, do you know why I like Christmas? When I was still a kid and my mother was alive we didn’t have much. I grew up in the Great Depression for goodness sake. You know we didn’t even have lights on our Christmas trees? They took up way too much power back then,” He sighed and shook his head.

“But it didn’t matter because my mother always made it special. She’d bake cookies and we’d decorate the house with paper chains and tinsel. She’d sing Christmas songs a lot,” He closed his eyes and sighed softly. It had been a long time since he had thought about those memories. He laughed, “She always tried to get me to go caroling, but I was so embarrassed because my voice was still so high.”

He looked over at Tony and smiled. “My point is—I don’t love Christmas because of the decorations or the gifts. I love it because of the memories it gives me with the people I care about. And I guess I didn’t realize that although most of those people are gone, I still have so many others I’m ready to make memories with.”

Tony grinned, “Merry Christmas then, Steve.”

 

 

 

 


End file.
